A new drug by Novartis has the potential to replace medicines that have been heavily used in heart failure treatment for a quarter of a century.
The experimental drug, known as LCZ696, showed to be very effective in reducing fatalities linked to heart failure in studies.
LCZ696 will reduce the risk of heart failure mortality and hospital admissions by one-fifth, almost ensuring the realization of the product's potential to make sales of billions of dollars with the premium price tag that is attached to it.
In addition to treating patients, the drug also made the patients feel much better, which further makes its case as a definite replacement for the drugs being currently used.
"Given the survival advantage of LCZ696 over currently available drugs, once this drug becomes available, it would be difficult to understand why physicians would continue to use traditional (drugs) ... for the treatment of heart failure," said Milton Packer from the University of Texas.
Packer, along with John McMurray from the University of Glasgow, were the joint principal investigators on the study that tested LCZ696, which compared the new drug to an older drug that is also known to increase survival rates.
The study on the effectiveness of LCZ696 was the largest ever made concerning heart failure, as it involved over 8,400 patients. The new drug was compared to enalapril, which is the so-called ACE inhibitor drug.
The results showed that the relative risk reduction of LCZ696 compared to enalapril is at 20 percent, which translates to about 90,000 fewer deaths per year in the United States and Europe if patients would be switching to LCZ696.
McMurray simply called the results of the study as "astonishing."
Little progress has been made for over a decade in the treatment of chronic heart failure, which is the condition wherein the person's heart is not able to pump the required blood throughout the body.
Novartis is hoping that the LCZ696 will rejuvenate the company as its Diovan blood pressure pill is facing stiff competition from generic medicines. The results of the study testing the new drug are highly anticipated because it could be the most important driving force behind the prices of Novartis stocks for the remainder of the year.
"This result is better than we ever could have anticipated," said David Epstein, the pharmaceuticals head of Novartis.
Epstein added that the drug could be made available in the market by the third quarter of next year. The price of the drug was not yet revealed, though Epstein said that the drug had a strong economic case as it would reduce costs by decreasing the number of required visits to the hospital.
Sales forecasts by analysts for LCZ696 have steadily been climbing recently, with 2019 expected sales currently standing at $1.9 billion.
